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The World Series of Blackjack?
By Sonny White | February 13, 2010
When I first heard there was a World Series of Blackjack, I thought it was a bit of a joke. After all, blackjack is played against the house; it couldn’t be a competition that would pit players against each other. This is a luck game not a skill game, so could this competition work? It turns out to be a pretty cool setup to this tournament that does give the players a few more options on how to remain in the tournament longer.
It’s a closed tournament and players only get in by invite or via a satellite tournament. The way it works is that there are two knockout cards added to each shoe. When a knockout is dealt, the player with the smallest chip total after the end of the following hand is eliminated from the tourney. The minimum bet will rise every time the knockout card appears, and if a player busts out before a knockout card comes, everyone remaining gets to hang around until the next one appears.
Players also get a chip that allows them to discard one card and draw another. The chip can be used on double downs to get a look at the double down card and decide if they want it or not. If they don’t want it, they can take the next card in the deck.
The players that get the invites are the industry’s elite. Known members of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team as well as gambling legends like Stanford Wong and Russ Hamilton have helped attract an audience to the event. The first season was won by Mike Aponte and he pocketed $100,000 (other than what Uncle Sam kept). Ken Einiger won Season 2 for a $250,000 payday, and Dr. Jeff Bernstein won the big $500,000 Season 3 grand prize.
The WSOB isn’t exactly sweeping the nation, but it is getting some air-time and local interest where the events are being held. Who knows, maybe it’s the next poker boom.
Topics: Online Blackjack |